Dress Matters: Clothing as Metaphor examines clothing in art as symbols of power and identity. At once functional and aesthetic, garments are worn to protect the body from the elements, enhance the beauty of the wearer, establish rank in society, and signal to others our differences or similarities. Garments also point to interpersonal issues and conditions as well as larger societal and cultural concerns. Works in this exhibition reveal how artists use concepts and images of clothing to relay compelling messages about gender, age, ethnicity, history, profession and the world around us in general. Dress Matters: Clothing as Metaphor is accompanied by a 64-page catalog, produced for the exhibition and published by the museum.

More than 50 artists are represented in the exhibition, including:

• Sama Alshaibi
• Laura Schiff Bean
• Joseph Beuys
• Willie Birch
• Christian Boltanski
• Robert Bracketti
• Bob Carey
• Nick Cave
• John Coffer
• Maureen Connor
• John Singleton Copley
• Béatrice Coron
• Kate Daudy
• Claudio Dicochea
• Jim Dine
• Simon Donovan
• Bailey Doogan
• Jay Dusard
• Johann George Edlinger
• Angela Ellsworth
• Fausto Fernandez
• Julia Fullerton-Batten
• Adam Fuss
• Guna Culture, Panama
• Valerie Hammond
• George E. Huffman
• Illman Brothers
  Graciela Iturbide
• Susan Jamison
• Benjamin M. Johnson
• Walt Kuhn
• Karen LaMonte
• Robert Longo
• Annie Lopez
• Robert Mapplethorpe
• Robyn Stoutenburg McDaniels
• Richard Mosse
• Mark Newport
• Catherine Opie
• Ruth Orkin
• Ebony G. Patterson
• Barbara Penn
• Wendy Red Star
• Miriam Schapiro
• Raghubir Singh
• Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
• Raphael Soyer
• Agata Stoinska
• Andy Warhol

Dress Matters: Clothing as Metaphor at the Tucson Museum of Art is presented by the Kautz Family Foundation & TMA’s Contemporary Art Society

With additional support provided by Betsy and Frank Babb

Generous support of the 2017 – 2018 Exhibition Season at the Tucson Museum of Art is provided by the Connie Hillman Family Foundation, James J. and Louise R. Glasser, Anne Y. Snodgrass, BMO Private Bank, and AC Hotel Tucson.

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Image Credit Top: Sama Alshaibi, Wasl (Union),  from the project “Silsila”, 2017, video, 9:27 min. Courtesy of the artist and Ayyam Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon and Dubai, UAE.

Image Credit Gallery: Bob Carey, Goose, 2012 digital archive print 16″ x 20″ On loan from the artist; Angela Ellsworth Seer Bonnet XIX (Flora Ann), 2011 24, 182 pearl corsage pins, fabric, steel, wood 60″ x 13″ x 16″ (base: 25″ x 40″ x 4″) On loan from Lisa Sette Gallery, Phoenix, AZ

Image Credit Bottom: Mosse, Richard, Better than the Real Thing II, 2012, digital c-print, dimensions variable, ©Richard Mosse. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.